Douglas Heyes Movies

Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is convinced that Otto Minski (Anthony James), a man he arrested several years before, is responsible for blowing up the angel statue on the grave of a woman whom Rick has once planned to marry. Trouble is, Minski is a past master at slipping through the fingers of the law and cooking up convenient alibis. Now Hunter must literally race against the clock to prevent the demented Minski from planting time bombs all over town! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The expensively mounted miniseries North and South was originally telecast in six two-hour installments between November 3 and 10, 1985. Four screenwriters--Douglas Heyes, Paul F. Edwards, Kathleen A. Shelley, Patricia Green--were called upon to fashion a workable script from John Jakes' sprawling best-seller. The story covers the two decades prior to the Civil War, beginning in 1842. Real-life historical events are filtered through the eyes of two rival clans: the Mains, a South Carolina plantation-owning family, and the Hazards, a family of Pennsylvania industrialists. While top billing goes to Kirstie Alley as "Northern Belle" Virgilia Hazard, most of the footage is devoted to the fluctuating friendship between Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) and George Hazard (James Read). The huge guest-star cast includes Gene Kelly (in his TV miniseries debut), Elizabeth Taylor, Leslie-Anne Down, David Carradine, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Hal Holbrook (as Abe Lincoln) and Johnny Cash (as abolitionist John Brown). The recipient of seven Emmy nominations, the 561-minute North and South was filmed back to back with its equally lengthy sequel, North and South, Book II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The third of ABC's miniseries offerings, The French Atlantic Affair was an expensive but pulpish all-star version of the same-named Ernest Lehmann novel. Chad Everett essays the nominal leading role as Robbins-esque novelist Harold Columbine, one of dozens of wealthy, well-dressed passengers on a luxury ocean liner. Columbine's earlier, sympathetic articles on cult leader Craig Dunleavy (Telly Savalas) may well prove to be life-savers when Dunleavy and his henchmen take over the liner and hold its 3,000-plus celebrity passengers for a 70-million-dollar ransom (that translates to 13 tons of solid gold). The script contrives to include a lavish costume ball wherein most of the younger actresses appear in extremely revealing costumes. Although title designer Phil Norman won an Emmy award for his efforts, viewers and critics were generally cool to the charms of The French Atlantic Affair when the three-part melodrama aired on November 15, 16, and 18, 1979 -- probably because the miniseries' melodramatic convolutions were dwarfed by the real-life hostage drama then unfolding in Iran. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of four dramatic miniseries carried by NBC under the blanket title Best Sellers, Captains and the Kings was adapted from a novel by Taylor Caldwell. Covering a time span from 1857 to 1912, this was the saga of the Irish-immigrant Armagh clan, with emphasis on the rags-to-riches career of Joseph Armagh (Richard Jordan). Achieving fame and prominence (if not full-fledged social acceptance) through a Byzantine series of investments in the oil industry, the elder Armagh was obsessed with the notion of having one of his sons become the first Irish-Catholic President of the United States (does this story sound vaguely familiar?). Along the way, Joseph and his offspring indulged in innumerable romantic liaisons, extramarital and otherwise. Featured in the all-star cast is Patty Duke Astin, who won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Bernadette Hennessey Armagh. Captains and the Kings was broadcast from September 30 to November 18, 1976 in seven installments, two of which ran 120 minutes, and the other six lasting 60 minutes -- a total of nine hours' air time in all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Honky Tonk represented an attempt by writer/director Douglas Heyes to create a TV series based on the 1941 Clark Gable-Lana Turner film of the same name. In Heyes' version of Honky Tonk, the role of gambler Candy Johnson, originally essayed by Gable, is filled by Richard Crenna, while Margot Kidder portrays Turner's character Lucy Cotton. A romantic triangle forms between Johnson, Lucy and dance-hall chanteuse Gold Dust (Claire Trevor in 1941, Stella Stevens in 1974). Meanwhile, Johnson and Lucy's old reprobate father (Will Geer) try to take advantage of every boom-town prospector within shouting range. Wisely running some 15 minutes shorter than the original, the TV-movie Honky Tonk was originally telecast April 1, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer Roy Huggins and director Douglas Heyes, Maverick veterans both, reteamed for the made-for-TV Drive Hard, Drive Fast. Brian Kelly stars as a race car driver who would have been better off sticking to the track. Upon hopping out of his slicked-up auto, Kelly gets mixed up in an unsavory love triangle involving Joan Collins and Joseph Campanella. Before long, Kelly has to keep peeking over his shoulder to avoid being hacked to piece by a machete-wielding assailant. Completed in 1969, Drive Hard, Drive Fast was not telecast until September 11, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched with orders to get to Ice Station Zebra carrying three passengers, a Englishman going by the name of David Jones (Patrick McGoohan), a Soviet turncoat named Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), and an American Marine officer, Captain Anders (Jim Brown), who is supposed to command the Marine unit assigned to the mission. Jones is problem enough, as he is in command of the mission and he prefers to withhold as much information as it's possible to do from Ferraday, even at the risk of the Tigerfish's safety. Add to that the fact that Anders is suspicious of Vaslov, and Vaslov seems much too inquisitive and is telling even less of what he knows about the mission, and Ferraday has his hands full trying to get these men to the polar ice -- 600 miles of dangerous travel -- in just two days. When an attempt to break through the ice -- coupled with some timely sabotage -- kills one man and nearly destroys the boat, the men surrounding these contending parties start to understand just how high the stakes are for everyone. It turns out that the Soviets want what was aboard that satellite as much as the West does; indeed, both sides are frantic to get it, and, just as much, to keep the other side from getting it -- and they're prepared to take it by brute force. Once Ferraday and his men arrive at Zebra, they find a disaster and still more mystery, with most of the men dead and the object that Mr. Jones is supposed to secure nowhere in evidence, and he and his two fellow men of mystery suddenly showing their killing instincts quite freely. And with the storm clearing from the Soviet side first, their planes and their paratroops are closing in on Ferraday, and his relative handful of men. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

An aspiring senator finds himself in deep trouble when he tangles with a sultry teenage girl gone bad in this campy drama. Ann-Margret stars as Jody, a tough customer who escapes from reform school by stabbing a matron and attempting to burn down the building and then takes refuge in a house owned by ambitious politician David Patton (John Forsythe). Despite the hellcat's ample charms, the would-be officeholder wants nothing to do with her and tries to drive her away. She responds by practically taking him hostage, with the help of a gang of delinquent friends. An unexpected act of violence causes more trouble, leading Jody to hijack David and force him to a drive a getaway car to Mexico. The stilted dialogue, over-the-top situations, and rampant sexual innuendo will prove particularly attractive to camp aficionados, who should be delighted by the presence of such recognizable figures as Ann-Margret and Forsythe in the central roles. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Wandering into the small Mexican town where Luis Gallegos (John Alonso) is about to be hanged, mercenary peddler Sykes (Thomas Gomez) sells the rope to the hangman, then turns around and sells a handful of "magic dust" to the condemned man's father (Vladimir Sokoloff). Lying through his teeth, Sykes insists that the dust will spread goodwill throughout the community -- and, it is hoped, will spare Gallegos' life. One doesn't have to be a diehard Twilight Zone fan to guess what will happen next. Douglas Heyes, Jr., son of the episode's director, plays a small role. Written by Rod Serling, "Dust" was first telecast January 6, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted for television by Charles Beaumont from his own short story, the Twilight Zone episode "Elegy" was first telecast February 19, 1960. Making an emergency landing on an Earth-like asteroid, three astronauts -- Webber (Kevin Hagen), Meyers (Jeff Morrow), and Kirby (Don Dubbins) -- are astonished to find that the little orb is fully populated by humans. Thing of it is, all of the humans are "frozen" in place, like wax statues. A seemingly harmless little man named Jeremy Wickwire (Cecil Kellaway), who is actually a robot, provides an explanation. . .and a few additional surprises. Van Cleave's musical score for "Elegy" would pop up in excerpt form in several future episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Charles Beaumont from his own short story, this is one of a handful of Twilight Zone episodes that can truly be described as terrifying. Told in flashback, it's the story of David Ellington (H.M. Wynant), who, while on a walking tour of Europe in the 1930s, is forced to take shelter in a non-religious monastery. Despite the warnings of Brother Jerome (John Carradine), Ellington takes pity on the bearded, wild-eyed "howling man" (Robin Hughes) who is locked in a basement cell. All hell breaks loose (literally!) when the foolhardy Ellington releases the prisoner. The episode's finale was designed to deliberately invoke memories of a similar sequence in the 1935 theatrical feature Werewolf of London. "The Howling Man" originally aired November 4, 1960. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bearing traces of the classic John Collier short story "Evening Primrose", Rod Serling's "The After Hours" was seen as the June 10, 1960, episode of Twilight Zone. While shopping in a big department store, Marsha White (Anne Francis) is inexorably drawn to the store's Ninth Floor, where a mysterious saleswoman (Elizabeth Allen) seems to recognize her. There's just one problem -- according to officious floorwalker Armbruster (James Milhollin), the store doesn't have a Ninth Floor! The makeup artistry of William Tuttle is utilized to the utmost in the episode's chilling (yet somehow touching) final scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide